


Fledgling

by Aaronna



Series: Incomplete Merlin Stories [3]
Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Attempted Murder, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Incomplete, Magic Revealed, Merlin!whump, Minor Character Death, Murder, Open permission to finish the story, Protective Arthur Pendragon (Merlin), Read at Your Own Risk, cliffhanger-y, does not follow canon timeline, just link this story in the inspired by box, little!merlin
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-13
Updated: 2021-02-13
Packaged: 2021-03-13 20:41:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,826
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29407815
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aaronna/pseuds/Aaronna
Summary: Part 3 of my Incomplete Merlin Stories collectionPrompt given to me from 1hotpepper“could you please try and write a kid Merlin and Merlin is a little kid and he's arthurs ward and Arthur and the Knights dote on him cause he's adorable and like 5. Idk if that made any sence but I would really like to see something like that.”
Relationships: Arthur Pendragon & Uther Pendragon (Merlin), Gaius & Uther (Merlin), Merlin & Arthur Pendragon (Merlin), Merlin & Uther Pendragon (Merlin)
Series: Incomplete Merlin Stories [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2160225
Comments: 1
Kudos: 36





	Fledgling

~*UTHER'S PERSPECTIVE*~

When you are a baby, you only want your close family to be near you. As a toddler, you like everyone and will let anyone pick you up, unless they are extremely scary. By four, you start becoming wary of strangers again. At six, most children hide from strangers, but not this little fellow.

Uther could hardly believe it. The child had run out of the woods in front of them on their way back to Camelot for the funeral of the late King Lothian and the coronation of the young King Cenred. The poor thing didn't even flinch when one of the horses knocked him over. The child was emasculated, burned, and looked half dead, but that didn't stop him. 

This was the first time Uther had brought Arthur on any of his diplomatic missions, and the teary eyed look his son had broke his stony heart more than the young peasant. Knowing that Arthur would not forgive him if he did nothing, Uther had one of the knights attempt to help the child. What happened next was shocking to the king.

Instead of flinching away, or showing fear at all, the child wrapped his bony arms around Sir Ian's neck and laughed. Uther was appalled by the state the child was in under the grainsack he wore. The poor boy was covered in boot shaped bruises and belt buckle shaped cuts. The boy fell fast asleep after they fed him some water soaked bread.

The entire time, Uther watched Arthur from the corner of his eye. The prince no longer looked sad about the boy, he looked like mother bear whose cub had been hurt. Uther had never seen his son so passionate about something as he was about hurting those who harmed this child. Whether this was good or a bad thing was yet to be seen.

When they decided to continue on, Arthur protested. The prince made a very compelling argument, so much so that Uther was nearly beaming with pride. The boy needed to rest and then they needed to at least let his family know where he was. Urther could tell that Arthur wanted to know who had beaten the dark haired boy, but this desire was never voiced.

~`.;.`~

The boy was the first to wake in the morning. He restarted the fire and began making a thick berry filled porridge sweetened with honey from a nearby tree. The knight on watch had tried to stop the boy, but the child scaled the trunk like a squirrel. The sweet boy managed to get a large piece of honeycomb without once getting stung.

The thing that was disturbing to Uther about the boy was that he never spoke and refused to eat until everyone else had at least one bowl full of the porridge. It took Arthur asking the boy to eat that the child attempted to eat. The boy placed a tiny amount of the sweet mixture in his bowl and the poured water in until the bowl was full. He then stirred it around until it was just a thin gruel before he ate it.

The joy in his eyes as he ate his watery meal was heart breaking. The child was obviously not used to eating much as his eyes widened in amazement as Arthur placed another small spoonful of the mixture in the boy's bowl. After that moment, the two could not be separated.

~`.;.`~

When they broke camp, Arthur asked the boy to lead them back to his home. The boy quickly nodded and started off down the path. It took several minutes for the eighteen year old prince to explain that the two of them needed to ride on the horse to lead the way. Usually, Uther would have stopped this, but seeing the protectiveness in his son's eyes, he let it happen.

~`.;.`~

It was just before noon when they came into sight of the village. It was small and contained mostly farmers, but it was obvious the boy's home. The boy clearly was afraid, but it was apparent that he only lead them back here for Arthur. The two of them had formed an odd sort of bond over the last couple of hours.

The villagers seemed to be in awe of the troupe of Camelot knights riding through their village. Once they reached the well in the center of the hamlet, they all dismounted. The boy hung on tightly to Arthur, but his eyes wandered around the crowd. Uther saw the disdainful looks the child was getting from his fellow peasants. There was no love for the child here.

"Might any of you know who this child belongs to?" Uther asked the crowd while gesturing towards to boy.

"Sure, he was Hunith's little bastard. But she had no need of him anymore." Replied an elderly woman.

"Might I speak with this Hunith?" Uther asked in a tone that obviously was more of an order.

"Not unless you can speak to the dead milord. She was hung for thievery just this morning." Was the cold reply.

"Does the boy have any other family? A father perhaps?" Uther clearly wanted the answer to be no, but he had to ask none the less.

"The bastard’s father hasn't been seen in nearly seven years and the only family the whore had was her half-brother in Camelot. Not that anyone would want the little beast. The monster is better off dead. Hard to kill that one. we tried beating the demon out of him, but he was just as much a devil after as he was before. He even escaped the pire. He is an abomination." The woman was clearly mad. There was no way this child was a monster, far from it.

"What had the child done to deserve such treatment? He is just a small child!" Uther was barely reigning in his temper.

"All of the children died last winter but that 'un. He never eats and never dies. Has been that way since he was born five winters ago. No child that small survives a winter like that. He is a demon!" She shrieked that last sentence and the entire village joined in in agreement.

"No, no, no! Mummy!" Uther turn to see the child watching a woman, his mother, swinging in a tree. Arthur pulled the boy into a hug, hiding the sight from him, and glared at the crowd before looking sadly at the dead woman.

"So there will be no problem with me taking the boy to Camelot?" Uther wasn't asking. He was going to take the boy one way or another.

"Take it! We don't want it's evil here! Take it and leave!"

As they mounted, Uther nodded to his senior knight and then to the woman's body in the tree. The message was clear. The mother deserved a burial and she was not likely to get one here.

~`.;.`~

They rode a few miles from the village before they stopped to bury the woman. The child knew she was gone. He told her good-bye and kissed her. After that he climbed into Arthur’s arms and cried. The boy was only five years old and already understood death. No child should, but this one was far older in mind than most. 

The boy cried for quarter of an hour before he began cleaning his mother for burial. If the precision at which he did the task was any indication, this was not the first body the boy had prepared. It was a tragedy.

Most five year olds can’t even dress themselves, but this one, with a little help from the knights and Arthur, removed her outer dress and washed it is the nearby stream. He then washed all the dirt away from her skin. She had been a beautiful woman. Her dark hair was released from it’s cover and allowed to flow. The boy was so careful as he redressed his mother and fixed her hair.

“She is ready.” The boy’s voice was small and sad. As it should be. This was not monster, just a child too stubborn to die.

While the knights laid her to rest, Arthur helped the boy carve his mother’s name into a stone. It was at that time that they learned that the woman had been a lady at one time. The Lady Hunith Ambrosius of Shalott.

That in itself was just another reason to help the boy. He may not be nobility, but he had noble blood. As if a child being beaten for not dying hadn’t been enough.

Arthur had started picking up some bad habits but Uther was unsure as to how to stem them. Or at least he had been, until he saw how attached the two of them had become. There is no way that Arthur would willingly hand the child off to the boy’s uncle unless they would still be near each other.

~`.;.`~

It wasn’t until leagues later that Uther realized something. Ambrosius! That was Gaius’s family name! And Gaius had a sister in Essetir! If the boy lived in the castle with Gaius, The child would be close enough to appease Arthur and well as reassure him that the boy was cared for. Uther just hoped that the loss would not be too hard on Gaius, as he was a good friend.

~`.;.`~

The boy would not let anyone but Arthur near him for the rest of the day. The child refused to eat that night and cried himself to sleep in Arthur chest. The next morning the boy was feverish and could not be roused. Uther knew the boy needed his uncle medical knowledge.

They rode hard and arrived in Camelot by midday. Arthur was already at the top of the courtyard steps with the boy in his arms by the time Uther dismounted. By the time Uther arrived at his friend’s chambers, the child had apparently stripped of the sack he was wearing and was currently having the burns on his arms and legs tended.

Arthur was pacing at the end of the room while Gaius and Morgana’s lady-in-waiting tended to the child. The look of protectiveness that Arthur had was openly seen on the faces of the two tending the boy. Uther knew that he too, felt the need to shield the little fellow from harm, but he hid it like he hid his love for his children.

Gaius explained that the boy had a nasty infection in his back from the beatings he had received as well as severe malnutrition. He would likely pull through, but it up to him. Arthur spent the rest of the day and that night by the boy’s side talking in a low voice. Uther could never make out what his son had said, but he really didn’t need to to know that Arthur was giving the boy a reason to live.

~`.;.`~

The child, right now, was just an excuse for the king to check on his friend. Gaius had taken his baby sister’s death rather hard. Gaius talked about how she wrote him as often as she could and how Bal had been an angel. The physician explained that the boy preferred his nickname of Merlin, as Bal was was his father’s name.

Finally, a name to call the boy. Merlin. It was an uncommon one, but it would make him memorable. Now the child just needed to live so they had a reason to call him by a name.

Arthur took the name in stride and began calling the boy by his name. The improvement was astonishing. The boys fever broke within an hour of the prince calling the child by the name he preferred to be called. Not long after that the boy woke. Merlin refused to eat until Arthur took the bowl and ate the meal with the boy.

~`.;.`~

It took a little over a week before the cuts on Merlin’s back no longer showed signs of infection. Over that week, the boy was like Arthur’s shadow, at his heels. The boy had nightmares unless Arthur was nearby. 

In fact, the boy had basically become Arthur’s servant. He cleaned up after Arthur, made the bed, and changed the sheets. Once he saw one of the squires polishing some armor, Merlin had taken it upon himself to tend Arthurs. The boy now slept in the servant’s room connected to Arthur’s chamber.

Uther was pleased that the boy was doing well, but he had bigger plans for Merlin that the prince’s manservant. That is why, once the boy was on the mend, that Uther decided to have the child educated by Lord Geoffrey of Monmouth. The lord had know the child’s mother and was more than willing to teach the boy.

The child was an incredibly fast learner. Merlin, it seemed, could already read and write the basics, but after a month, the boy’s writing was flawless. The boy began learning to write in six languages, was soon able to speak twelve, and had a fair head for numbers.

The fact that all of this was learnt while sitting at the edge of the practice fields is what made this all the more astounding. In fact, that was the only time the boy would leave Arthur’s side other than to sleep. This lead Arthur to practice more frequently and for longer periods of time. This lead to both of them excelling at their tasks.

~`.;.`~

It took a year before Merlin would sleep in the chambers that were assigned to him. By this time the boy had become attached to Morgana and the majority of the knights. The boy was still painfully thin despite the vast amounts of food he consumed. But that might change as the boy got older, at least Uther hoped so.

Uther was slowly grooming Merlin to be an advisor to Arthur. The boy had the head and loyalty for it. With how much he cared about Arthur, there was no way that he would purposely give the prince bad council, and that was a rare quality.

After Merlin followed Arthur out on a patrol it became clear that the boy completely dedicated to the prince. Uther’s eyes widened in horror when the patrol returned early with both Arthur and Merlin injured and a twenty bandit prisoners. Neither of the boys had been hurt badly during that patrol, just a mild blow to the head for both of them. 

Once he was sure that Arthur and Merlin would be fine, Uther began to wonder why the knights had spared the men. Then he found out that those were Merlin’s victims. The boy had managed to get his hands on a knife and had cut the hamstrings on one leg of each of these men. Twenty men had been partially crippled by a thin seven year old. With a single knife! That was when the boy’s weapon training began. 

Merlin was a little young to be using a sword, so they started him off with a long dagger and then a dirk. The bow came easy to the boy as did the slingshot. The boy wouldn’t get near a mace. Every time they were brought out, Merlin would hide.

The child had a smile that could lighten even the darkest moods, but those maces would make Merlin’s smile hide for days on end. No one knew why, but it didn’t really matter. Arthur and the knights would still train with them, but they made sure to do it when Merlin was too busy to notice.

~`.;.`~

Many of the nobles in Camelot looked down on Merlin. Their dislike of the boy was often heard by the king as rumors and gossip. “What right did a commoner have to be trained to fight by the best warriors in the kingdom? He had no right to the education bestowed on him! He clings to the prince as if he was the boy’s father!” 

That last remark was the last straw for Uther. It was mere days from Arthur’s twenty first birthday, the age of manhood and the legal age one had to be to adopt. Merlin was only eight, so it the perfect solution. 

On his birthday, Arthur would announce that he was adopting the boy from Gaius, the boy’s legal guardian. Not only would that free Gaius of any responsibility to the child, it would add another heir to the throne and make the Arthur and Merlin incredibly happy.

~`.;.`~

That night when Uther brought the subject up, Arthur glowed with happiness. There was only one part of the plan that Arthur was unhappy about. Arthur wanted to ask Merlin if he wanted to be adopted. That was not something that was usually done, but the boy could hardly be considered normal anyway.

Tears poured down Merlin’s face when Arthur asked him. Merlin was a fairly tall child, so he had no difficulty throwing his arms around the prince’s neck and whispering his acceptance. So, the day Arthur became the Crown Prince, Merlin became Merlin Ambrosius Pendragon, next heir to the throne should Arthur die or fail to produce an heir of his own.

When the Council protested Merlin’s claim to the throne Uther was ready for them. He had Merlin explain how similar things happened in Rome and that those adopted boys became wonderful emperors. When they attacked the fact he was a peasant, Merlin rattled off his family tree, which was mostly well known nobles. Merlin took it even further by pointing out that Romulus and Remus had been raised as peasants before they created the the Empire of Rome.

There were at least a dozen people in the room beaming with pride as the eight year old told off men nearly nine times his age. It was clear to Uther that he had made the right choice as watched all of his loyal knights grin happily at Merlin’s heart felt speech. Yes, he had done the right thing.

~*ARTHUR’S PERSPECTIVE*~

He was so bored! His father had up and decided that Arthur was old enough to know what he was going to inherit. Arthur wasn’t stupid, he knew that his father has hoping that he and the new young king would get along enough to be strong allies in the future. But Cenred was a vain man whose people puffed up his ego.

One look at the man and Arthur knew this was exactly what he didn’t want to be as a king. The man had been speaking ill of his late uncle Lothian before the man was even laid to rest! On top of that, he treated his knights like they were dirt beneath his feet. The bruises and cuts on the soon-to-be -king’s servants made Arthur’s blood boil. The man was a coward! 

If you are going to confront someone, you either make the meeting peaceful or you give your opponent a way to defend themselves. Arthur knew he was a bully. He hadn’t meant for it to happen, but it had. But Arthur always gave them the means to defend themselves. Always.

So when a deathly thin, black haired ran out in the path and got knocked over by one of the horses, Arthur immediately felt as though he and the knights had wronged the boy. Tears formed against his will when he saw the burns. Arthur had seen burns like that before. Someone had tried to burn the boy on a pyre! The guilt doubled when Arthur thought of all the people he had helped capture who burn in the courtyard in Camelot. 

Arthur was shocked when his father asked Sir Ian to check on the boy. The little guy was only wearing what appeared to be a feed bag that someone had cut three holes in. The laugh had confused Arthur until Ian lifted the sack. Arthur clenched his reigns in anger.

The boy was covered in boot shaped bruises in every shade a bruise can have. On top of all of that, he had cuts and scrapes where he had been beaten with the buckle end of a belt. The boy could not be older than six. Who would kick, beat, and try to burn him? No wonder the boy laughed! He was only used to being punished!

As the boy happily wolfed down the waterlogged chunk of bread, Arthur swore to himself that the boy wouldn’t go back to those who would hurt a child like this. Children this boy’s age should have a fear of strangers, but this boy was too used to pain to fear those kind to him. No sooner did he finish the bread then he fell asleep in Ian’s lap.

When his father mentioned continuing on, Arthur’s heart took over his tongue. He have his father all the reasons to stay where they were, he pointed out that they would all be breaking the Knight’s Code. While he said that they should take the boy home, Arthur really just wanted to make those who had hurt him pay.

Arthur was dumbfounded by the look of pride on his father’s face when he finished his tirade. His mouth almost fell open when his father agreed and told the knights to make camp. The raven-haired boy slept through the entire set-up, dinner, and was still out cold when Arthur’s watch ended.

~`.;.`~

The next morning the prince woke to the sound of Sir Oswald urgently whispering for someone to be careful and to please come down. Opening his eyes, Arthur first saw a pot of berried porridge cooking over the fire and four empty water flasks lying just to the side. Turning over, the prince could see Oswald attempting to talk the skinny boy out of a beech tree.

At first Arthur was worried that the boy might fall but after a few moments it was clear to the prince that this boy knew exactly what he was doing. A few minutes later, he scrambled down the tree holding a rather large piece of honeycomb. Amazingly, he hadn’t even been stung!

As soon as the boy’s feet touched the ground, he ran to the pot of cooking food. The boy dropped the comb into a bowl and began crushing it with a spoon. Uther, who was the only one with a tent, walked out just in time to see the boy carefully pour the honey from the bowl into the porridge, making sure the comb never fell in. 

The food was delicious, but the boy refused to eat until Arthur handed him an empty bowl and asked him to eat. Those two sets of blue eyes lock for a moment before the raven placed just a small amount of the sweet mess in his bowl. Arthur was about to protest when the boy filled the rest of the bowl with water and began mixing it up.

The boy knew he wouldn’t be able to stomach something so rich that he had made it easier to eat. Arthur waited until the boy was finished with that before he added another small scoop of porridge to his bowl again. The look of love that the boy gave him, reinforced the earlier vow and added to it.

Arthur pledged to help this boy and protect his at all costs. Arthur decided that he was not going to let the boy out of his sight. The feeling must have been mutual because after that, the boy refused to go anywhere without the prince.

~`.;.`~

When it wa s time to head out, Arthur got down on his knees to front of the boy and asked if he could show them the way to his home. The pain and fear that lept to the boy’s eyes almost made the prince apologize and reassure him that didn’t have to, but then those eyes hardened and closed. The boy then opened his eyes, nodded, and started walking down the path.

It was very cute, the prince thought, to see how confused the boy was about leading from the horse. Arthur explained that all the boy would need to do was point and he would make the horse go that direction. It took several minutes, but the boy finally understood and was willing to ride up of the horse with his new friend.

Yes, Arthur had told the boy he was a friend. That was something the prince had never said before. But the look on happiness in those big blue eyes was well worth the honor of calling the child a friend.

~`.;.`~

It was almost midday when they reached the village. Arthur knew it was the right place when the boy stiffened in his arms when it came into sight. The remains of a small bonfire lay just off of the road at the edge of the village. The shiver that ran through the boy when he caught sight of it confirmed that it was the pyre the boy had been tied to.

Arthur had spent most of their ride telling the boy about his life and the trouble he got into to that the boy’s age. But not now. Now he was telling the boy that he was safe. That he, Prince Arthur, would see that no harm came to him.

The villagers looked kind and they were amazed at the knights riding through their home. At least that was until the saw the boy. Arthur dismounted before picking the boy up off of the horse and onto his hip like he had seen mothers do with their children. 

The boy was frightened half to death by these people. Despite this fear, the boy seemed to be searching for someone. Before Arthur could ask about that, his father began addressing to crowd.

"Might any of you know who this child belongs to?" Arthur noticed that his father seemed to dislike these people as he did.

"Sure, he was Hunith's little bastard. But she had no need of him anymore." Arthur’s anger flared when the boy in his arms flinched at the old woman’s words.

"Might I speak with this Hunith?" Arthur nearly smiled at his father’s commanding tone.

"Not unless you can speak to the dead milord. She was hung for thievery just this morning." The boy nearly stopped breathing and his eyes widened in panic.

"Does the boy have any other family? A father perhaps?" Arthur loved his father for following the laws so that they boy could return home with them.

"The bastard’s father hasn't been seen in nearly seven years and the only family the whore had was her half-brother in Camelot. Not that anyone would want the little beast. The monster is better off dead. Hard to kill that one. we tried beating the demon out of him, but he was just as much a devil after as he was before. He even escaped the pyre. He is an abomination." The edges of Arthur’s vision grew red.

"What had the child done to deserve such treatment? He is just a small child!" Arthur would have attacked the woman if his father had just let this pass.

"All of the children died last winter but that 'un. He never eats and never dies. Has been that way since he was born five winters ago. No child that small survives a winter like that. He is a demon!" Arthur was about to scream back at the woman when the boy gasped.

"No, no, no! Mummy!" Arthur’s eyes followed the boys line of sight to see a beautiful woman swaying in the branches of a tree on the other side of the common area. He pulled the boy’s body closer, hiding the view. ‘No child should see their loved ones like that’ he thought as he glared at the murderers. Feeling the trembling form in his arms, the prince’s gaze fell back on the dead woman, Hunith. A beautiful name for a lovely woman who died much too soon.

"So there will be no problem with me taking the boy to Camelot?" Arthur’s remorse was lightened by his father’s tone. The boy was coming with them one way or another.

"Take it! We don't want it's evil here! Take it and leave!" Arthur wasted no time remounting, he wanted away from these righteous hypocrites. 

As the prince turned to question his father about the boy’s mother, he saw the king silently request Sir Robert cut her down. Appease, Arthur followed his father’s lead the way out of the vile village.

~`.;.`~

Arthur had spent the miles listening to the boy in his arms explain to himself, likely in his mother’s words, what death was, how to prepare them for burial, and what a title was. The boy’s mother had been a lady of the court before the Purge. Gaius’s sister if the boy’s mumbling were to be believed. She had once been a friend to the late queen, Arthur’s mother. In fact, so had the boy’s father before he was banished and hunted down. 

The boy didn’t know he was talking out loud, Arthur soon realized, because the boy then explained that his father had been a magic user and that the boy in his arms was one as well. Arthur knew he was supposed to hate the child for it, but he couldn’t. There was no way the sweet little guy, currently repeating what death was, was evil! 

Arthur knew he needed to keep this from his father, but how? He had sworn an oath to uphold his father’s laws and to protect the innocent. And right now, those two things were in conflict. Arthur decided to wait and deal with things as they happened.

~`.;.`~

They rode for nearly a league before stopping by the bank of a nearby river. Arthur approved of his father’s choice in resting places for the lady. Apparently the boy approved too, as he smiled sadly as he looked about.

Arthur was the only person in the group who was not surprised when the boy, instead of crying and asking their mother to wake up like other children would, he simply told her good-bye and kissed her. When the boy can back to him and cried in his arms, Arthur mumbled comforting words he had heard from Gaius over the years and rubbed the boy’s bony back. Arthur knew that was not nearly enough, but it was the only way he knew how to help.

After a few minutes, the boy started talking to the prince. “She knew this would happen. She freed me and told me to run, run until I found someone to trust. I don’t know you, but I trust you. Mummy would have liked you. And now she is dead because of me.”

“Hey, how is this your fault? You had no way of stopping those lunatics. No, it is not your fault.” Arthur’s voice was cracking with held back tears.

“She wouldn’t have needed to steal if I wasn’t born or if I died. She taught me everything she thought I might need. She taught me how to wash dead people…” The boy stopped there, got up, walked over to his mother and started cleaning the grime off her face.

Arthur only had to gesture once for the knights to join him in helping the boy. They carefully helped the little man remove her outer dress. As the boy washed it in the stream, Arthur and Oswald picked out a spot for the grave while the others began collecting rocks.

Once the dress had been washed the boy handed it to Ian who hung it to dry on a bush. As the boy washed his mother, he heard the child whispering a prayer for his mother’s soul and the let her finally be free of all burdens. The precision and care this little boy put into his last moments with his mother was gut wrenching for the prince.

Arthur had thought that the lady had been beautiful before, but after she was clean and her hair was loose, she was stunning. She looked like one of those lost princesses it those old nursery stories. In a way, Arthur thought her the most beautiful person he had ever met. 

She had lowered herself from a lady of the court to a peasant, just to keep her child safe. She had stolen and died for her baby. She had a beautiful heart as well as a lovely face. Lady Hunith was exactly what Arthur had always thought was impossible. But now he knew that, there was every chance that there were more like her out there.

Shaking himself from those thoughts, Arthur noticed that the boy had said that she was ready. So as the knights dug the grave, Arthur asked the boy if he wanted to put his mother’s name on a rock so people would know who she was. The child nodded vigorously and climbed into the prince’s lap. Arthur had to smile when his father saw the two of them together and then read the name. 

He clearly missed the connection to Gaius, but it was a start. His father watched the two of them for the rest of the day and Arthur kept an eye on his father. It was a couple of hours before Arthur saw the understanding flood his father’s face for a few minutes until gentle worry replaced it. 

Arthur knew that Gaius was the only true friend his father had and he was the only one Arthur ever saw the king show affection for. When he was a child he had been jealous, but when he met Leon, he finally understood. Seeing the sadness for his friend made Arthur love his father even more, but it wasn’t nearly as strong as what he felt for the bony child in front of him.

~`.;.`~

Than night, the child was too sad and tired to eat. Arthur understood that, he did, but he worried that missing a meal in his weakened state would cause problems later. The next morning, Arthur woke to find his fear had come true. The boy was burning up and wouldn’t wake up.

Never had he been as scared for someone else in his life. Arthur had beyond relieved when his father ordered everything packed up double time. This father’s pace was one of urgency, the same urgency that had the prince whispering comforting, yet encouraging words to the child in his arms the entire way to the city. 

He barely noticed their ride through the lower town. All he could think about was getting the little wizard in his arms to Gaius. His horse hadn’t even fully stopped when he jumped off of it and took off at a sprint towards the physician’s chambers.

Once the boy was under his uncle’s care, Arthur’s worry for the boys condition mostly faded and was replaced by worry about breaking his father’s laws to protect the child.


End file.
